Bar Turns and Butter Knives

What does a mechanical engineering student do the weekend before finals? Study? Nope, he goes on a mountain biking road trip. Well, at least that is what I did. I left Moscow Idaho Thursday night and headed for Newport Washington. I arrived at Mike Metzger’s house two hours later. Mike and I planned out our trip for the weekend while watching Ryan Denehy’s last movie The New Deal. We sealed our plans and fell asleep nice and early for the drive in the morning.We awoke at 5:30 am and loaded two hardtails and two downhill bikes into Mike’s Acura and set out for highway two with Leavenworth Washington as our final destination. We were going to meet up with Kyle Young and Kevin Menard from Transition Bikes and go for a shuttled ride. We started the trip moaning and groaning about gas being almost three dollars a gallon, and then having to hit every red light through downtown Spokane. Once we got on the highway, it was loud music, open sun roof, Cheese-it’s, and a lesson in electricity. Just in case anyone was curious, if you stick a butter knife in a cigarette lighter, it will spark and shock you. Not to mention, you will forever be labeled as the kid who stuck a butter knife in a socket.

The car hugged the turns down the valley into Wenatchee Washington and I called Fride swag owner David Evans. He said he received a copy of Ryan Denehy’s latest movie, The Big Deal, featuring footage I had filmed of Mike. It put us in the mood to ride knowing that when were done we were going to be treated to a movie before it has been released. David would have joined us for the ride, however he was imitating the terminator with the amount of metal in him from his broken wrist.


20 miles past Wenatchee is the city of Leavenworth Washington. Leavenworth is nestled in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills and snowcapped mountains. We drove a block off of highway two and into the parking lot of Das Rad Haus. We met the shop owner, James Munly and he informed us that we would be shuttling two trails in the coolest shuttle vehicle I have ever seen. Kyle Young, Kevin Menard, and Cam Burnes of Transition bikes met us at the bike shop with the new Bottle Rocket prototypes. After a short drool session, we loaded the shuttle vehicle and four-wheeled towards the top of a trail called Ribbed for Pleasure.


The road to the top opened less then 12 hours before our ascent, so we had no idea what to expect. Surprisingly the road was clear most of the way until we came upon a large snow patch. We could have probably blasted through it in the lifted Suburban, but with the 300 foot drop off the side of the road, no one wanted to chance it. We took the bikes off the top and pushed the last 15 minutes to the start of the trail. Everyone was really excited to hit the trail. Right after the first section I noticed my tire was flat. I borrowed a tube from Kyle who was much more prepared than the rest of us and fixed my tire and posed for pictures with Mike.


Looking ahead, we saw the start of the jumps. The trail was littered with them. It was a rhythm section for the majority of the trail. I followed Kyle Young down the trail. It was neat watching the brand new Bottle Rocket work in front of me. Kyle made the bike fly over the little jumps effortlessly. It looks like the Bottle Rocket has found it’s niche and will be well received. I really wanted to snatch it and ride away with it underneath me.


The trail was very fun, fast and flowy. The pinnacle was the Dukes of Hazard hip that Metzger, Kyle, Kevin and I decided to hit. This thing was perfect, big, smooth, and fun.


Riding further down the trail we came to the last section. A series of dirt jumps which we rode for a few runs before pedaling back to town for the next shuttle.

Once again we loaded up the shuttle, this time for a trail called Tres Hombres. We shuttled the road all the way to the top of another ridge. A short fire road lead us to the Tres Hombres road gap that we all hit numerous times. One of the locals even hit it for the first time with all of us watching, while Mike and Kyle kept trying to do bigger tricks than one another. But they both secretly know my bar turns were the biggest trick thrown. (just kidding)


This trail was very different from the first. There were no big jumps, or large drops, just steep fast single track and breathtaking views. The best part of this trail was riding the ridgeline. This was a very narrow part of the trail with very large drops on either side. We had to stop and pose right before the ridge.


After the ridgeline on the trail, we dropped into a section that was very reminiscent of Moab Utah. It was a large rock slab about the size of a football field with drops and holes the whole way down. Riding down it involved brakes-on the whole time while trying not to crash. A few more fun turns and we came upon the last stunt on the trail. A very steep rock roll that one of the locals showed us. Cam was the only one in our group who hit it.


The shuttle was once again loaded up and drove us back to the bike shop. We sat around and thanked James and the mechanics at Das Rad Haus for letting us use their shuttle and tools and went on our merry way.

Mike and I drove back to Wenatchee and found David’s house and became the first to watch the Big Deal movie. I just want to say it was amazing. The filming, editing, and soundtrack meshed together perfectly. We watched it three times that night it was so good. While we were at David’s house, we got a sneak peak at the 2006 Fride swag line. We loaded up with as much stuff as we could handle and went to bed. The next day we planned a little dirt jumping in the morning and then decided finish the drive to Seattle to partake in the Go Huck Yourself’s first dirt jam of the season at the Softies dirt jumps.

Check out the second part of our trip soon.